


dream.exe

by sxster_snapped



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Clay | Dream Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Everyone Needs A Hug, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Im not a doctor, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Seizures, Sickfic, Tags Contain Spoilers, Temporary Blindness, Wordcount: 10.000-30.000, bad description of illness, but i did a lot of research, can be romantic, content warning, like 25 tabs open at one point, no beta we die like george in manhunts, no joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-19 01:07:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29499291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sxster_snapped/pseuds/sxster_snapped
Summary: When a server is exposed to   ̶d̶r̶e̶a̶m̶.̶e̶x̶e̶- admin.pak, it and its Admin 404 within a week if they are not separated to recover. The cure doesn't exist, and likely won't for several more weeks or months of work, but the DreamSMP doesn't have that kind of time. How will they manage to escape the deadly fate of admin.pak?(i promise the story is better than the summary, i just really dont want to spoil anything)<3Can be read as platonic or romantic relationshipsThis is a work of fiction based on the characters portrayed by the people mentioned in this story. If any creator was to say they were uncomfortable with works like this, I would remove it immediately and apologize. Please do not send this to the creators.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF) & Everyone, Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Zak Ahmed & Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, Zak Ahmed & Darryl Noveschosch, Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 6
Kudos: 151





	dream.exe

Sapnap watched Dream pace around the community house with mild disinterest, George lounging in the chair next to him with his legs flung over the armrest. Dream hadn’t stopped moving in some way since he had received a message from Skeppy. The two were concerned about what the message had contained, but Dream had refused to tell them anything. George let out a quiet sigh, making Dream flinch and turn towards his friends as if he’d forgotten they were there.

“How much longer until Skeppy and Bad get here?” George asked when Dream’s attention finally left whatever was going through his mind.

“Uh, Skeppy said they were leaving MunchyMC, but with the virus going around, travel between servers is slowing down. It shouldn’t be too much longer,” Dream replied, sounding distracted as his face turned to the window and going silent again. He didn’t start pacing again, but his hands danced over his arms and fingers played with the cuffs of his sweatshirt, constantly needing to be in motion. “I think we. . .”

His voice trailed off, hands stopping their movement. George and Sapnap shared a look, having a silent argument. Sapnap stood up and grabbed Dream’s shoulders, making him flinch again. George shifted so he was sitting correctly in his chair. Dream’s mask turned to Sapnap, silent and hands frozen where they had instinctively grabbed Sapnap’s wrists.

“Dream, I have no idea what has you all worked up, but if you keep pacing you’re going to make me dizzy,” Sapnap said in the most serious voice he could muster. 

George rolled his eyes and put his elbows on his knees, holding up his head, “What snap map is trying to say, Dream, is sit down. You stressing won’t make Skeppy and Bad get here faster. Want to tell us about the new information you got about the virus?”

Dream let Sapnap lead him to the empty sofa, sitting down and pulling his mask off. He let out a deep sigh, flinging the mask sideways and running a hand over his face. Exhaustion evident in his face when he finally looked up, “We’ve narrowed down the type of virus - personally I think it’s a slow infecting resident virus - but we still have no cure and no preventative measures. The Hypixel staff told me they’re completely shut down, people on the server can’t leave and new people can’t join. MunchyMC is going to join them in locking down as soon as Skeppy and Bad leave. Even 2b2t announced they wouldn’t be letting new people in. After Skeppy had to leave InvadedLands to avoid the virus, everyone’s been on high alert. Two servers are dead, the admins barely managed to get the members out before they 404ed.”

Sapnap and George winced, both of them well aware of the amount of stress Dream had gone through when he’d heard of InvadedLands getting infected. The server had three straight days of thunderstorms as Dream fully dedicated himself to messaging various servers’ Admins, trying to find a kill switch in the virus’ code. George and Calahan tried to keep the server functioning, with Sapnap and Punz working together to keep the influx of hostile mobs away, but without its Admin’s energy the land had started to suffer. It had taken George several hours and lots of frustrated tears and arguing to finally convince Dream to step back from finding the kill switch and come back to the SMP. The difference was immediate, the rain stopped and peaceful mobs coming out from where they had hidden. Sapnap and Punz had both passed out and slept for almost 24 hours straight when George had returned with Dream, the duo exhausted by the constant threat of hostile mobs. Dream spent the next week traveling the server and checking his firewalls to make sure they were still strong. 

“The two who 404ed thankfully didn’t void. They were retrieved by Philza and other hardcore players, since they’re the ones with the most practice traversing the void. But the servers are gone forever, no recovery possible. The virus corrupted all backups,” Dream continued, making eye contact with George. The heterochromic eyes filled with pain and exhaustion that mirrored his own green ones. “I don’t know how much longer my defenses will last. It just takes one person who’s been infected to bring the virus. Sapnap, George, if the server starts to go down-”

“Don’t even start talking like that, Dream. You won’t get infected, but even if you do we will not leave you to die,” Sapnap said harshly, Dream’s tired gaze turning to his angry black eyes. George nodded his agreement, watching Dream as his communicator lit up with a message.

Dream read it quickly and closed his eyes, “I have antiviruses prepared and my firewalls are some of the strongest, but I’m basically inviting this damn thing in.”

“What?” George leaned forward, eyebrows pinched in confusion and worry.

“Bad was exposed. MunchyMC has been infected, and Skeppy is bringing Bad here to try and prevent the virus from getting a stronger grip on him,” Dream said, his head still downcast as Sapnap and George exploded in complaints. He let them talk over each other, voicing their anger at Dream’s rash decision. Dream eventually looked up, eyes flickering between his two friends. “I knew you weren’t going to be happy, which is why I didn’t tell you until Bad and Skeppy were basically already here. C’mon, I want to meet them at their mansion to check up on Bad’s condition.”

George wanted to protest more, as did Sapnap, but they knew it would be useless as Dream was just as stubborn as they were. Sapnap just sighed and grabbed his sword, George pulling his goggles down and slipping his bow onto his back. Dream waited by the door for the duo, his mask already firmly in place. When the trio stepped outside, Dream’s mood seemed to improve immediately, his head tilting back to enjoy the warmth of the sun. The Greater Dream SMP was relatively empty as everyone went to L’Manberg to enjoy the good weather. Sapnap and George fell into pace behind Dream, talking quietly and trying to come up with ideas to stop the virus. Their communicators all buzzed twice alerting them that Bad and Skeppy had arrived right when they got to the archway at the front of the duo’s property. Skeppy had an arm around Bad’s waist, supporting the older when they walked out of the mansion. Bad grinned brightly, but the virus had obviously drained him. His normally pitch black skin was covered in patches of grey, and the bright white glow of his eyes was dull. George and Sapnap greeted Bad with smiles, hugging their Admin friend. Dream stopped a few feet away from Bad. Skeppy walked over to him when George helped support Bad, speaking quietly to the taller. Bad went to give Dream a hug, but the other Admin stepped back.

“It’s probably not the best idea for us to get too close. We don’t know if the virus is still attached to you,” Dream said, voice low and emotionless. Bad stopped, nodding as Skeppy moved back over to wrap an arm around his waist. “I’m glad to see you, Bad. How’s MunchyMC doing?”

Bad shrugged weakly, “As well as it can be doing, my assistant admins and mods are keeping things running smoothly. The virus doesn’t seem to hurt big servers like it did the two small ones that it destroyed. I think the fewer staff there are, the worse it is, because the Admin is stuck using their energy to keep themselves and their server alive.”

Dream hummed, nodding slowly, “That makes sense. The stronger the connection to the Admin, the stronger the virus’ effect.”

“Which means you need to get out of here,” Skeppy said tersely. “I refuse to be part of the cause of death for the entire Dream SMP.”

Dream laughed, shaking his head. He glanced at the sky, “I actually do need to go check the firewalls. I should be back before sunset.”

“I should go with you,” George said quickly, grabbing Dream’s wrist before he could open the Admin menu. Dream looked up at him with what was likely a confused expression under his mask. George flushed slightly, well aware that Skeppy and Sapnap were snickering at him. “I’m the second best coder. If there’s any issue with the fire walls, then I would be able to help you fix it faster.”

Skeppy whispered something that made Sapnap burst into laughter while Bad let out a displeased shout, smacking Skeppy’s arm as he laughed with Sapnap. Dream glanced at them before shrugging, pulling up the Admin’s menu and grabbing George. He pulled George close, his arm wrapped around his waist. George quickly slammed his eyes shut, nausea overtaking him as Dream selected the location and teleported them to the server border. Skeppy and Sapnap made eye contact after the duo vanished and burst into laughter again.

Watching Dream work on server maintenance would be boring to most people, but George had always been easily fascinated when it came to how Admin’s and their servers interacted. The code of the server seemed to reach out, curling around Dream as he worked on strengthening small weaknesses in the code that George wouldn’t have even noticed. The server seemed to be curious about George, the code reaching out to him when Dream asked him to check a section he had revised. George gave his approval, and Dream smiled as he sent the code away. He had his mask tied around his arm so he’d be able to see the code easier, which gave George the rare ability to study the Admin’s normally hidden face. There was a faint flush on his cheeks due to the chill in the air that made Dream’s freckles and scars stand out even more. George traced his eyes over a newer scar that he hadn’t seen before. It went down the right side of Dream’s face, narrowly missing his eye, and it curved almost perfectly along his jaw line.

“Where’d you get the new scar?”

Dream paused what he was doing, fingers going to the scar, knowing immediately which one George was talking about. He sent George a small grin, “TNT. There was a mishap with the placement and things went a bit off script. I took most of the blast which broke my mask, and my mask cut me.”

“ _ Dream _ , you have to be more careful. I get that you and Wilbur are thrilled by the response to the SMP plot, but you can’t risk actual harm,” George said, stepping forward to trace his hand over the various scars. “We can’t lose you.”

“You’re more dramatic than I am,” Dream whispered with a small grin. He leaned into George’s gentle touch, lips brushing against the side of George’s hand when he spoke. “I swear I would respawn, you don’t have to worry about me voiding.”

George sighed, resting his forehead against Dream’s shoulder. He felt Dream’s hand move up to run through his hair comfortingly. George’s goggles were removed from his head by Dream’s gentle hands, and he sighed again, “I know you’ll respawn, but I know how painful respawns are. I don’t want you to go through that unnecessarily.”

“George,” Dream pushed him out of the hug gently. A soft smile graced Dream’s lips as he looked into the bright blue and dark brown of George’s eyes. “George, I-”

A startled gasp cut off Dream’s sentence. He fell to the ground, both hands going to his head. George dropped to his knees quickly, hands gently attempting to detangle Dream’s fingers from his hair. A pained whimper passed Dream’s lips, causing George to stop his movements and turn to check the code. His hands flew as he checked the various bits of code Dream had worked on, looking for any possible reason that the server might be hurting and causing Dream pain. When his search came up empty, George changed targets, now searching for the virus’ footprint that he had memorized long ago. The virus was advanced, adapting and knowing how to disguise itself, but it left a very specific error in the special lines of code that connected the Admins to their servers.

“ _ No _ . No,  _ fuck _ , no,” George shoved the server’s code away, turning to Dream with panic. The Admin was still curled up in a ball, hands white knuckled in his hair. Quiet noises of pain rarely slipped out, letting George know Dream was still conscious enough to try and hide the pain. “Dream, please, we have to get you back and I can’t teleport us.”

Dream looked up, green eyes glowing. He winced at George’s startled expression, quickly blinking the glow away, “Grab my arm.”

George barely had time to follow Dream’s instruction before he had pulled up the Admin’s menu and teleported them back to his base. George stumbled slightly, the nausea of teleporting catching him off guard despite his knowledge of it. Dream straightened his back, kneeling on his feet and taking deep breaths. He coughed weakly, untying his mask from his arm and pulling it over his face. George knelt next to him, wrapping his arms loosely around the Admin, who was shaking so slightly that George almost couldn’t feel the tremors.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Dream whispered, hands cupping George’s face and voice dripping with urgency. “ _ Please _ , George. I can’t have them worrying, it’ll hurt the server more.”

George stared at Dream, the enchanted ceramic mask not letting him see the tears welling up in emerald eyes. The blue and brown eyes closed, George taking a deep breath, “Okay, Dream. I know you well enough to know I shouldn’t trust you with self care, so I swear if you get worse and try to hide it from me I  _ will  _ kill you.”

Dream let out a relieved sigh. He stood shakily, using George’s help to pull himself up. The two went to the nether portal, quickly getting out of the hidden room in the nether and walking towards the main portal. Dream moved further away from George when they got to the area of the nether with more traffic, not wanting to seem weak in front of the other members. George had his bow at the ready, eyes scanning for ghasts or magma cubes that Dream wasn’t paying attention to. Sapnap was sitting on the blackstone steps outside of the portal, sharpening his enchanted netherite sword. He looked up at the sound of the portal activating, typing a quick message on his communicator before standing up.

“What the hell?”

“Sorry?” Dream said, voice sounding normal to almost anyone. Sapnap seemed to immediately notice how tired the man was, losing some of his anger.

“It’s past sunset, you said you’d be back before sunset,” Sapnap said quietly, eyes flickering to George with a silent question that George replied to with a subtle shake of his head. “Callahan messaged me because he said you weren’t replying to him, and he needed to tell you he can’t get to the server. He’s stuck over in MunchyMC.”

Dream nodded slowly, checking his communicator and sighing, “I’ll send him a message tomorrow. Right now, I want to go to sleep, did you do patrol?”

“Yeah, everything was quiet,” Sapnap replied, slipping his sword into its sheath. “We’re good to sleep, Ponk and Sam are on night guard.”

George grabbed Dream’s shoulder when he swayed slightly. Sapnap’s eyes widened, and he stepped forward in case Dream fell. Dream leaned into George. His head dropped forward, and he brought up a hand to press it against his mask on his forehead. A quiet groan left the tallest, slowly sinking to the ground with George’s help. Sapnap knelt next to them, hands held awkwardly, not knowing how to help the Admin.

“Dream? You good man?” Sapnap asked in a near whisper, not wanting to speak too loudly.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Dream muttered, pulling his mask off. He covered his face with his hands, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “I’m going to pass out if I don’t lie down soon.”

George wrapped his arm around Dream’s chest, under his arms, to help him balance. Sapnap offered his hands, which Dream grabbed with a firm grip to pull himself up. The trio took a moment to let Dream breathe, but he was quick to start walking towards the community house. George kept his arm loose around Dream’s torso, not holding him, but offering support in case he needed it. The Brit sent a silent thank you to the members of the server for not waiting around to see Dream. He knew they were all concerned and wanting to check up on the Admin, but Dream would hate it if they saw him in any state of weakness. When they made it to the upper level of the community house, George gently sat down with Dream on his bed. He rested his head on his taller friend’s shoulder as Sapnap sat on his other side.

“Stay?” Dream whispered, voice almost too quiet for the other two to hear. He pulled his mask off, revealing the dried tear tracks and deathly tired eyes. “Please?”

Sapnap finished pulling off his armor and stashed it in a chest with his other items. George tossed his goggles over to Sapnap to be put away before wrapping both arms around Dream and pulling him down to lie down. Dream buried his face in George’s chest, relaxing into the other’s embrace. Sapnap lay down behind Dream with his arm gently on top, his fingers lacing with George’s. The trio slowly fell asleep, the moon gently shining through the glass roof. 

The sun had barely crept above the horizon before Dream was up, gently extracting himself from where he was sandwiched between his friends. He quickly retrieved his mask and pulled it on, immediately feeling more relaxed when he was hidden from the world. George and Sapnap both shifted in their sleep, George mumbling something and Sapnap pulling him closer to him. Dream watched the two curl together, peaceful in each other’s company for once instead of being at each other’s throats. He typed out a short reply to Callahan, reassuring him that it was okay for him to stay at MunchyMC. The immediate relieved reply made him smile behind the mask, putting his communicator away. Dream heard laughter from one of the bridges connecting the community house to the rest of the server. He made his way down the staircase to the main level, reaching the bottom just as Tommy and Tubbo walked in.

“Hey, Big D! Wilbur was wondering if you’d be down to do more plot toda, I was thinking that we could do the exile scene,” Tommy said with a bright grin. Dream winced at his voice, loud and energetic as always. Tubbo waved as he grabbed a fresh loaf of bread from one of the community chests. “Or we could do a different thing, Wilbur said he was thinking we could work on a spin off plot with El Rapids. Big Q was busy the last time we tried to do anything with him, but I think it could be a fun break from the serious plot.”

“Tommy, Tubbo, it’s barely dawn. Why are you two up so early?” Dream asked, leaning his shoulder against the staircase. “Most normal people are just waking up.”

“You’re up too, Big D, it must be the big men that wake up early,” Tommy replied, still as loud and energetic as before. 

Tubbo rolled his eyes, “Tommy basically dragged me here, I didn’t want to get up this early. I’d rather be watching the sunrise with my bees.”

Dream laughed quietly, shaking his head as the two started arguing. He pulled up his inventory and pulled out half a stack of Blue Orchids. He tossed them to Tubbo, whose eyes went huge at the sight of the bright blue flowers, “I stopped by a swamp the other day and there were a ton of these. I knew you didn’t have as many as you wanted since swamps are so far away, so I grabbed a few for you.”

Tubbo carefully put the flowers in his inventory before basically tackling Dream in a hug. The Admin stumbled backwards slightly, almost falling backwards before he caught his balance. Tubbo had a huge smile on his face, “Thank you! I asked Techno if he could get me some, but he was busy.”

“Anytime, Tubbster,” Dream said with a smile. His mask tilted up as he heard movement from upstairs, likely Sapnap since George could sleep for a full day if they let him. Tommy shifted his weight back and forth, and Dream turned towards him. “What time does Wilbur want to do the exile scene? And are you wanting rain or clear skies?”

“Rain would be so pog, but I’d ask Wilbur. He’s better at the creative stuff,” Tommy said with a shrug, eyes bright with excitement. “Come on, Tubbo, let’s go tell Wilbur to get everyone to the set! I’ll have him message you the time, Big D!”

The two teens waved and sprinted out the door they had come in. Sapnap came down the stairs as the door slammed, barefoot and rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He watched the two teens run across the bridge before turning to Dream with confusion. A yawn interrupted him before he could speak, but after he stopped yawning he spoke, “Why were they here? How are you feeling?”

“Mm, plot stuff, and I don’t have a headache anymore so I’m fine,” Dream replied, stretching out from where he was leaning against the stairs. “I think the first variation of the virus gave up. I should be good for a while.”

“I think you should keep healing pots on you, in case it attacks out of nowhere,” Sapnap said, rifling through a community chest until he found one of the potions and tossed it to Dream.

“What good is a healing pot going to do against a code failure?”

“I don’t know, Dream, maybe it’ll stop you from screaming in agony and making me feel even worse as I watch my best friend die from something I’m powerless to stop,” Sapnap snapped, eyes angry but also filled with pain. The tension suddenly drained from his body and his head dropped forward. “Dream, please. I’m not like you and George. I’m a damn good coder, but I can’t sit and look at code for hours on end to find one number or letter that’s out of place. I don’t want to just sit back and watch you 404 like those other Admins. I want to help, but I have no idea how.”

“Sap. . .” Dream slipped the healing potion into his inventory. He stepped towards his friend and pulled him into a tight hug. Sapnap’s hands clenched the fabric of Dream’s hoodie, and Dream rested his chin on top of his friend’s head. “Just stay by my side, man. That alone will make a world of difference.”

“Always, dude, I’ll always stick with you,” Sapnap replied, stepping out of the hug with a small laugh. “Can I light a firework in the room to wake up Gogy?”

“Sapnap, no! It could hurt him, or destroy the house,” Dream wheezed, grabbing the firework that Sapnap had pulled out. “Just throw him out of the bed or something.”

“I’m telling him it was your idea!” he shouted as he booked it up the stairs, leaving Dream to die of laughter. George’s scream rang out a few seconds later followed by the loud thud of Sapnap likely getting thrown off the bed. Dream leaned against the staircase, slowly sliding down it as he laughed even harder. George appeared at the top of the stairs, eyes narrowed and hair a mess.

“ _ Dream _ , what the hell?” George’s voice was lower than normal, still heavy with sleep. “Why did you tell Sapnap to do that?”

Dream wheezed even harder, pushing his mask up so he could wipe the tears from his eyes as he struggled to breathe. George groaned with annoyance, Sapnap’s laughter now audible from the upstairs. The Brit crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow to Dream, who was still trying to catch his breath. Sapnap walked down the stairs and ducked away from the punch George threw his way. His grin was met by a deadpan stare, Dream still sitting on the floor with his back against the stairs.

“I hate you both.”

“George, George, ohmygod,” Dream heaved in deep breaths in an attempt to steady himself. His head thudded into the stairs as he tried to stop laughing.

Sapnap grabbed George’s arms and pulled him into a hug, “ _ Gogy _ , you love me. Admit it.”

“I hate you both,” George repeated in the same monotone, making Sapnap laugh again. George shoved Sapnap away from him and grabbed an apple from a chest. “Did I hear Tommy earlier or was it just a nightmare?”

Dream stood up, stealing the apple Sapnap had grabbed. He gestured vaguely out the door that the two teenagers had disappeared out, “Tommy and Tubbo stopped by, Wilbur wants to do plot stuff today. Tommy’s really excited for his exile scene.”

“Oh, so George actually has to show up?” Sapnap asked with a teasing grin.

George sent an unimpressed look at the younger, “I showed up when they burned down my house too. I’ve been more involved with the plot recently than you have.”

“Boys, boys, you’re both pretty,” Dream said before pausing and grinning behind his mask. “Besides, I’ve been more involved than either of you.”

A message from Wilbur distracted him as the other two started arguing over whose character was the best in the plot, ‘ _ I was thinking an early start would be best for the exile scene so we can get a few different takes depending on if people actually vote to exile Tommy or not. Rain would be great, but no thunder if you can help it. It makes it easier to hear the lines.’ _

_ ‘Is everyone on set already? Sapnap, George, and I will be on our way soon.’ _ Dream sent the message and glanced up when he realized Sapnap and George weren’t arguing anymore. George had gone back upstairs to change, and Sapnap was pulling on his armor so he could protect the people involved in the plot from mobs.

_ ‘We’re waiting on you, but no rush. Tommy and Ranboo are trying to convince Fundy to kiss a sheep and it's plenty entertaining.’ _ Wilbur’s reply only took a few minutes, but George was already back downstairs. His goggles were in place, and he had a dark blue cloak tossed over his arm. Dream quickly told Wilbur the trio was headed towards the set.

“Do I actually have to wear this crown? It’s stupidly heavy,” George complained, holding up the object of his disdain. The crown itself was actually iron, but it was covered in gold and inlaid with gems to give it a more regal appearance. “I appreciate the work that went into making it so I can actually see the colors of the gems, but it's so uncomfortable.”

“Cry about it, your highness,” Sapnap shouted as he finished pulling his armor on. “The people want King Gogy, so you have to give them King Gogy.”

Dream laughed as George kept complaining. The other two followed him as he started to walk towards the set, arguing back and forth over nothing. He could hear Fundy shouting at Tommy almost before the trio could see the obsidian walls of the set. Sapnap went still for a moment, giving a quiet whistle at the sight of the foreboding walls.

“How long did that take you?” 

“About a day and a half,” Dream replied with a shrug. It had been fun work. Tommy walked along on the ground talking about random things as the Admin had built up the intimidating barrier. Tommy had offered to help, but after misplacing the obsidian four times, they both decided it would be best for him to not build with the difficult to remove block. “It wasn’t too hard to build, it’s only four blocks high and one thick. I honestly only built it out to where you can’t see it from the entrance because the only plot that’s happening with it is the exile.”

“That’s understandable, dude. A day and a half? The fans must’ve lost their minds,” Sapnap said with a laugh. He broke into a light jog to catch back up since the other two didn’t stop at the grand sight.

“Big D! Sassnap! Gogy!” Tommy shouted over Fundy, dodging past the fox hybrid and using the trio as human shields. The teen was wearing his red and white shirt, but he had his bandana tied around his arm instead of his neck. Tubbo waved from where he was standing next to Wilbur. Ranboo was doubled over and laughing but he managed a greeting when he heard Tommy.

Quackity appeared suddenly and practically tackled Sapnap in a hug, arms wrapped around the other’s waist as he grinned hugely, “Hola guapitos, ready to kick Tommy out of the server finally?”

“Big Q, save me! Fundy wants me dead,” Tommy shrieked out, diving behind Quackity as Fundy stepped closer to the trio.

“Hey  _ babe _ ,” Dream said, drawing out the pet name with a quiet laugh, slipping his arms around the fox in a light hug.

Fundy stopped trying to get to Tommy and rolled his eyes at the taller man, “Hi Dream. Can you kill Tommy for me?”

Tommy spluttered out offended words, Dream laughing at the fox hybrid and letting him go. The Admin stepped aside and waved his hand, “He’s all yours, Fundy, but make sure you’re both ready for when Wilbur calls places.”

The teen cursed Dream, taking off and shouting more curses as Fundy almost catches him a few times. Dream glanced over to where Karl had joined Quackity, Sapnap, and George, a small smile growing under his mask. He walked over to Wilbur and gave Tubbo an one armed hug. The teen grinned and hugged Dream back as he kept talking about various flowers to Wilbur. He pulled out the bright blue orchids Dream had given him earlier and gestured in the direction of his bee farm with excitement. Wilbur seemed to be half paying attention, busy scribbling down notes in his book.

“Do you think that would look cool, Dream?” Tubbo stopped his rambling after asking the question, eyes turned to Dream’s mask.

“If you made it, I’m sure it would look amazing. You’re a great builder, Tubbo,” Dream said with a smile that the boy couldn’t see, but could hopefully hear in his voice. “Wilbur, you said you want to film multiple takes. Should I get the rain to start now or is there a cue you’d want it to rain on?”

“Hmm, it would seem too fake and cliche to have it start raining on cue. If you started the rain now, people would look like they’d been standing in the rain for a long time, but that could work,” Wilbur murmured, eyes flickering over the other members of the SMP. He seemed lost in thought, tapping his pen against his lips as he hummed. “Start the rain now, let's catch them off guard.”

Dream’s grin grew under his mask as he pulled up the Admin menu. Tubbo watched with wide eyes, and Dream stepped slightly to the side so he could watch. His hands flew as he typed in the necessary commands. He turned the menu to Tubbo, whose eyes went even bigger as he reached forward and hit the ‘enter’ button. Clouds filled the sky and rain started almost immediately, startled shouts coming from the other members of the server. Tubbo laughed brightly, tilting his face back to let the rain fall on it. Dream sent the Admin menu away and pulled up his hood. He wiped the rain from his mask with mild annoyance, the water messing with the enchantments that let him see through the ceramic.

“I’m guessing that is our cue to get ready?” Quackity shouted where he was standing with George. Karl and Sapnap had ducked under a tree when the rain started, both wearing armor and not wanting to get soaked.

Wilbur called everyone to places, but stopped and pulled George aside, “Listen, I know you want to be more involved, but it might fit better if you weren’t here for this. It’s important to set up a new plot line Dream and I were thinking of starting.”

“Oh thank god, I don’t have to wear this outfit in the rain,” George said with relief. Wilbur relaxed when he knew George wouldn’t be angry to not be in the plot. “Do you have an ender chest I could stick this crown and cloak in?”

George went to chill with Karl and Sapnap after his outfit was safe from the rain and the ender chest was put back in Wilbur’s inventory. The three watched as the others got into character, Dream easily falling into the role of the master-mind puppeteer. Despite knowing it was a character, Sapnap and George flinched as Dream shouted at Tommy about Spirit and the discs. Karl was watching the acting with awe, always one to be fascinated by the characters his friends were able to build. After several hours of Wilbur calling for redos on lines and different angles, the rain was stopped by Dream and the actors went to change out of their soaked clothes. Sapnap had only needed to kill a few zombies that had come out of the caves when the clouds blocked out the sun. Dream pulled his hoodie off, making sure his mask wasn’t moved before standing up straight in the warm sun. He was in a black tank top that exposed the many scars going up and down his arms, but with how tired he was after the long time working on the plot he couldn’t bring himself to care. George laughed when Dream collapsed next to him on the dirt hill that led up to El Rapids, letting out a tired groan as he stretched.

“Good plot day?” he asked with a teasing grin.

“I hate being the villain,” Dream groaned, throwing an arm over his mask. “It’s fun, yeah, but it’s so exhausting.”

“How are you feeling?” George rolled onto his side to face Dream, tucking his arm under his head as a pillow.

Dream removed his arm and pulled his mask off, which made George’s eyes go wide as he quickly looked around for anyone who might be nearby. No one was close enough to see Dream’s face, and George let out a quiet breath when he realized that. The Admin ran a hand over his eyes, which were glowing faintly, “A small headache, nothing bad. It could definitely be worse.”

George hummed quietly, sitting up and throwing Dream’s hoodie over his face when he saw Quackity and Karl coming down from El Rapids. Sapnap was right behind them, all three in dry clothes and no armor. Dream pulled his hoodie off, putting his mask back on before the people coming down the slope could see his face. Karl suddenly leapt over the two, tumbling into a role when he hit the ground. Quackity skidded down the hill, shouting in Spanish as he started chasing Karl. Sapnap sat next to Dream and George, a soft smile on his face as he watched the other two run around.

“¡No me amas, Karl! Voy a llorar si no dices que me amas,” Quackity shouted as Karl ran closer to the seated trio. “¡Espere! Dame ese.”

He grabbed Dream’s discarded hoodie, pulling it on despite it being way too big for him. The sleeves covered his hands and it was way too long, falling about mid thigh, but Quackity cheered with laughter as Dream looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, “Can I help you?”

“Si, hombre. It’s me, Mexican Dream,” Quackity said with a grin, spreading his arms out. Sapnap and George laughed at Dream’s startled huff of laughter. “¿Tienes drogas, hombre?”

Dream laughed, shaking his head at the teen. Karl ran over, collapsing next to Sapnap and taking deep breaths. Dream pushed himself to his feet, spreading his own arms in a mimicry of Quackity’s stance, “I’ll give you a ten second headstart,  _ hombre _ .”

Quackity went pale, turning and sprinting down the hill. Dream did count to ten before giving chase, but he closed the distance easily. Quackity shrieked as Dream almost caught him, “Karl, Sapnap, help! Este policia is gonna get me!”

The duo glanced at each other, Sapnap shrugging in response to Karl’s silent question. They stood up and ran after the other two, Sapnap tackling Dream to the ground as Karl and Quackity cheered him on. George stayed on the slope, laughing as he watched his friends wrestle on the ground. Dream managed to get out of Sapnap’s grip and gave chase to Karl and Quackity again, the duo letting out twin shouts of panic as they took off running again. George was the first one to notice Dream suddenly freeze, entire body going completely stiff before limp, his alarmed yell alerting Sapnap. He spun around and threw himself towards his friend. Sapnap managed to catch Dream and cushion his landing with his own body, and by the time he got into a seated position with Dream lying on the ground next to him Karl and Quackity were next to the two. George ran over and grabbed Dream’s shoulder, rolling him onto his back and checking his pulse. Relief filled his face when he felt a weak heartbeat against his fingers, the relief passing to the three others.

“What happened?” Karl asked quietly, fidgeting with his hands. Quackity’s face mirrored Karl’s concern, his own hands clenching and unclenching in the hoodie sleeves.

Sapnap and George glanced at each other. George let out a quiet breath as his hand moved down to grab Dream’s wrist, pressing fingers into his pulse point, “It’s the admin virus. Bad was exposed because MunchyMC was infected, but Dream let him come to the SMP to recover anyway. The virus didn’t fully attach itself to Bad for some reason, so he’s likely to make a full recovery. Dream and I were checking code yesterday, and it was a few hours after Bad and Skeppy arrived by the time he finished. He collapsed. I don’t know how the virus managed to infect him so quickly. It’s supposed to be a slow infecting resident virus so it shouldn’t be so vicious.”

“What if it mutated? I was talking with Skeppy because I wanted to annoy Bad - but he’s sick so I didn’t - and it sounded like the virus was almost a living thing with how fast it responds to all attacks against it,” Quackity spoke up, voice strangely serious for the usually energetic teen. “I don’t know a lot about coding, but Dream’s never reacted so strongly to viruses before.”

“You’re right, and that’s because, despite being an idiot with no sense of self preservation, Dream has good firewalls and antivirus work set up for the server. The last virus to get through set off one of his alerts, so by the time he was infected he was already halfway to destroying it,” George replied. He pushed his goggles up, eyes flickering over Dream’s body as he looked for any signs that the Admin might wake up soon. “I’m going to go check this virus’ code, message me if he wakes up or if his condition gets worse. Don’t tell anyone that it’s the virus, Dream doesn’t want a lot of people to know.”

“Let’s get him into a building, I don’t want to have to listen to Dream complain about waking up in the mud,” Sapnap said after George got up and took of in a light jog towards the community house where he could use a console Dream made for him to check code in case of emergency. Sapnap got a firm grip under Dream’s arms, Quackity grabbing the Admin by his ankles. Karl walked ahead of them, grabbing the door to one of the buildings in L’Manberg and holding it as they carried Dream in. A loud voice greeted them, quickly getting hushed by several others when the people saw the unconscious body being carried.

“What happened?” Fundy asked quietly, moving closer to the bed they set Dream on. The hybrid’s eyes were filled with concern, as were the gazes of all the other people in the room.

“He collapsed, probably because he didn’t sleep enough again. He’ll be okay, but George is checking things out with the code just to be safe,” Sapnap lied easily, shaking his head subtly at Karl’s and Quackity’s glance.

Tubbo moved closer despite the reassurance, nervousness in every inch of his body. He grabbed a chair and sat down next to the bed, when he spoke up, his voice was quiet, “What if it’s the admin virus?”

Ranboo, Tommy, and Fundy all winced at the mention of the virus, Wilbur finally looked up from where he was reading, and even Philza and Technoblade seemed concerned as they shared a look with each other. The entire atmosphere of the room shifted to one of tense worry. Sapnap could feel eyes on him and he closed his eyes, trying to keep his head level.

“If it is the virus, I’m sure Dream’s antivirus programs are already running to destroy it and George will catch it,” Sapnap reassured the group, knowing how empty his words were. “All we can do is wait for him to wake up and for George to tell us what he finds.”

A few nods were the only response. Tommy and Ranboo left the building, followed quickly by Wilbur, Philza, and Technoblade. Tubbo remained seated in the chair he pulled up, hands fidgeting with anything he could touch. Karl and Quackity quietly said they were going to go give George company so he wouldn’t be working alone. Sapnap pulled his own chair over, sitting next to Tubbo in companionable silence for a while. A quiet sob escaped Tubbo, making him slap a hand over his mouth to try and stifle it. Sapnap looked at him, startled by the display of emotion.

“Hey, Tubs, you okay?” he asked, never one to handle other people’s emotions.

Tubbo sniffed, looking away from Sapnap and clearing his throat, “Sorry, sorry. I’m just worried. Dream’s Admin screen had a bunch of alerts going off earlier when he let me start the rain. You said that his antivirus programs would be running, but one of the alerts was about the antivirus program.”

“What? You saw his Admin screen?” Sapnap turned his chair to fully face the younger boy. Tubbo looked up, startled and teary eyed.

“Uhm, yes? He lets me watch what he does a lot because he knows I want to be an Admin someday,” Tubbo replied, confusion lacing his voice. At Sapnap’s stunned silence, a small frown grew on his face. “Is. . .is that not normal?”

“No, not at all. An Admin’s screen is their most private belonging, getting to look at it is the same as getting to look at the server’s code,” Sapnap said in a quiet voice that was filled with shock. “It took him four years for him to let me see it, and it took him two years after that for George.”

“Oh, I-I thought it was a normal thing,” Tubbo’s eyes were huge, staring at the unconscious Admin. “I never thought it was anything special.”

Sapnap shook his head in quiet awe, looking down at his friend. Tubbo wiped the tears from his eyes, clearing his throat again. He refused to look at Sapnap, hands fidgeting with the sheets on the bed. A quiet noise came from the figure on the bed, making the other two lock eyes before Tubbo moved back so Sapnap could kneel next to Dream’s head. 

“Dream?” Sapnap said quietly, a hand resting on Dream’s arm. “Hey, Dream. You can wake up, buddy.”

The man shifted, hand moving to push his mask off before Sapnap caught it and stopped him. Dream let out a quiet noise of confusion and Tubbo decided to make himself known. He stepped forward to be within Dream’s range of sight, “It’s just Tubbo, Sap, now help me get my mask off.”

Sapnap shrugged and moved to unfasten the straps of the mask, setting it to the side and sitting down. Dream pushed himself up to rest on his elbows, leaning against the headboard and groaning quietly. He ran a hand over his face, rubbing his temple and wincing at the bright lights. Tubbo avoided looking at Dream, instead tracing his eyes over the pattern in the wood floor.

“How you feeling, Dream? Didn’t get enough sleep last night?” Sapnap said with a small smile, rubbing Dream’s shoulder in a comforting way.

“Sapnap, you don’t have to lie in front of the kid. Out of everyone, he’s probably going to be the first to figure it out,” Dream muttered, hand falling to the bed. He focused tired green eyes on Tubbo, whose curiosity had gotten the best of him and made him look at the normally masked face. A weak smile crept onto his face as the boy quickly looked away, embarrassed that he’d been caught. “Hey, Tubster. You figure out what the alerts were on my menu?”

“Virus alerts,” Tubbo mumbled, ignoring Dream’s gaze with intense focus. “You have the admin virus and it’s changed its attack pattern, making it more aggressive and faster progressing than it has been. You’re. . .you might die.”

“Mhm, I told you, Sap, this kid’s smart,” Dream closed his eyes, resting a hand on top of them. “So, Tubbo, what would you suggest we do?”

Tubbo looked up, eyes wide, “You want me to-”

“Yes, Tubbo. Like I said, you’re smart. I’m too far in studying this virus to think outside the box, so what would you suggest I do?”

“Um, maybe a server reboot? Let the code try to fix itself and separate the virus out so you can locate it and remove it?” Tubbo glanced between the other two. The young teen was obviously nervous, but Dream hummed quietly and nodded.

“If I do that, everyone would have to leave while it restarts. That’s not currently an option with Bad recovering from the virus and all the other servers locking down,” Dream said, wincing as Tubbo’s face fell. “It’s a good idea! It’s just not possible right now.”

“Okay, uhm, have you managed to find a kill switch in its code?”

Dream shook his head, “Lots of Admins and coders are working on it, but we barely can isolate the virus code because of how adaptive it is. It attacks all forms of servers except hardcore and creative, and it doesn’t go after single player worlds. Originally I thought it was a slow infecting resident virus, but I think I was wrong. It’s acting more like a fast infecting resident virus, attacking viciously and not worrying about being noticed.”

“If it’s adaptive, do you think there might be a person behind it? Like, someone editing the code so it targets specific people and attacks them?” 

“Tubbo,” Dream started, getting interrupted by a coughing fit. Sapnap helped him sit up more so he could breathe easier after the coughing stopped. He gave his friend an appreciative smile, leaning his head back against the headboard again. “Tubbo, you can’t tell anyone what I’m going to tell you, okay? I haven’t even told Sapnap and George this.”

“What? Why would you tell me?” 

“Because you’re going to be a great Admin someday, and I want you to learn from my mistakes so you can be prepared and never have this happen to you,” Dream said with a smile, Sapnap nodding his agreement as Tubbo looked between the two with shock. “Anyways, the virus  _ is  _ a resident virus, but it’s polymorphic. It’s a self-encrypted virus, specifically coded to avoid detection by any of our scanners. The ‘official’ name that we’ve told the public is admin.pak, but the actual name the virus presented itself with was dream.exe.”

Sapnap’s and Tubbo’s jaws both dropped. Sapnap slumped back in his chair, eyes slightly unfocused as he took in the new information. Tubbo stared at Dream with fear, “So it  _ is  _ someone targeting you?”

Dream nodded slowly, eyes closing at face screwing up with pain. He rubbed his temple and let out a quiet breath, “Yes. That’s why I decided to let Bad in despite being exposed. I thought if I got the virus, the person would stop the attacks on other Admins to focus on taking me out for whatever reason they have.”

“You’re an idiot, Dream. A complete fucking idiot,” Sapnap muttered, his communicator open and a message from George on the screen. He typed out a response before looking up at Dream. “What the fuck, dude? You know Bad and Skeppy could’ve found a different place to go to get away from the virus. Why the hell would you willingly expose yourself to something that was literally made to target you?”

“Because I would rather die than watch younger and less experienced Admins 404 with their servers because of something intended for me,” Dream spat out, eyes narrowed but filled with more pain than anger. He looked away from the other two, studying his hands, which were shaking ever so slightly. “This virus is intended for me. Anyone who dies and any server that is lost, those are on my hands. If I can stop this by sacrificing myself, then I will gladly let it happen. I’m strong, I can hold out while we keep looking for a cure. George is smart, so are you Sap, if anyone can find a cure I believe it’s you two. But if things start going downhill, I want you, both of you, to promise me that you will get everyone out of here.”

“I promise, Dream,” Tubbo mumbled, not meeting Sapnap’s betrayed gaze.

Sapnap stood up harshly, chair sliding roughly across the floor. He paced back and forth, running his hands through his hair as he walked. Dream watched him, face filled with exhaustion and worry. Tubbo stood awkwardly, not knowing how he should act in such a tense situation. The door opened, making Dream reach for his discarded mask as George’s familiar goggles were pushed up his face to help him adjust to the darkness inside the room.

“Dream! You’re up!” George was by the bed in a split second, ignoring the other two people in the room. Dream relaxed, letting the mask fall back to the bed. “I checked over the code and found a possible solution, but I wouldn’t be able to execute it. It requires Admin privileges.”

Dream hummed quietly, moving to sit up. George put a firm hand on his shoulder when he almost tipped over while swinging his legs off the bed. Sapnap stopped his pacing, arms crossed in front of his chest. The youngest glanced at the trio and mumbled an excuse for why he had to leave, quickly walking out before any of the others could object. George glanced between the two, easily picking up on the tense atmosphere.

“I think I should know whatever you told Sapnap and Tubbo,” the brit said, sitting on the bed next to Dream so he wouldn’t feel trapped. “Obviously Sap isn’t happy with you about whatever it is, but I’ll be less happy if you don’t tell me.”

“The virus, it’s name isn’t actually admin.pak,” Dream started, wincing at the startled look George immediately got. George’s hand slipped from his shoulder to grab Dream’s wrist. The fingers pressed against his pulse point betraying how fast his heart was racing and how nervous he was. “It’s dream.exe. It was meant to-”

“To take you out,” George muttered, hand tightening its grip on Dream’s wrist. Dream ran the fingers of his other hand in a steady pattern over George’s hand. Sapnap had uncrossed his arms, letting out a harsh puff of air as he sat down in the chair he had abandoned. “ _ Dammit _ , Dream, I told you we can’t lose you. You’re not allowed to just do stuff like this.”

“George, I told Sapnap I would rather die than let others die for me, and I will never change my mind on that,” Dream said. His voice was firm, but when George met his gaze, he could see the fear in Dream’s eyes. George dropped his head onto Dream’s shoulder, offering support while also taking comfort.

“I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did,” Sapnap muttered softly. “I get what you’re saying, Dream, but I still wish you told us before you just accepted a virus literally named after you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Sapnap shook his head and George let out a quiet laugh. Dream scooted over on the bed, making room for Sapnap to sit on the other side of him. The youngest of the trio was quick to curl into Dream’s side, Dream resting his chin on top of Sapnap’s head. They sat in comfortable silence, content to listen to and to feel each other's breaths and pulses. Dream had almost fallen asleep again when a wave of agony made him tip forward. He would’ve fallen out of the bed if it weren’t for George’s and Sapnap’s arms catching him. A pain filled cry tore out of his throat, the other two shared a look and quickly helped lower him to the ground so he was resting on his knees. Short breaths shook his entire frame as any walls he had built up crumpled completely, hand blindly fumbling for George’s and squeezing until all of their fingers were white knuckled. Sapnap rubbed his back comfortingly, feeling the pain-induced shudders tear through his friend.

“George, Sap,” Dream’s voice broke and another pained noise escaped him. George and Sapnap made eye contact again, both gazes filled with a shared pain. They stayed kneeling next to Dream, offering comfort in any way they could until the Admin finally managed to stop shaking and his breathing evened out. Tears ran down Dream’s face, but he was quick to wipe them away before the others commented on them. His grip on George’s hand relaxed, and he pushed himself off of his knees, standing shakily. “ _ Fuck _ , that does not feel like a normal virus. George, I’m willing to try anything, what’s your plan?”

“There’s a backdoor in the code of the virus, if you can figure out a way to unlock it, then we could potentially disrupt the code enough to make it a dormant virus or to kill it completely,” George said, rubbing feeling back into the hand Dream had been squeezing. “I don’t think it would’ve been possible for anyone to miss it, so it must’ve happened in a recent mutation. It might also be the reason why the virus didn’t attach properly to Bad.”

“That’s a start. Sap, want to join us?” Dream offered as he stumbled to the bed and grabbed his mask. 

Sapnap scoffed quietly, “As if I’d let you go alone with Gogy again. Last time I did that, you came back almost an hour late and infected with a virus.”

“You cannot blame me for that, it’s completely Dream’s fault,” George defended, throwing his hands up in front of him. Sapnap laughed as Dream threw George an offended look, making sure to lift up his mask so they could see his expression.

Dream pulled up his Admin menu to prepare to teleport all three. Both Sapnap and George could see all of the alerts flashing across it, but neither commented on them, instead trying to memorize all of the warnings and errors. Dream held his arms out to his friends, the two quick to lace their arms with his. He typed out a few more commands before they vanished. Sapnap stumbled, bracing himself against Dream as he tried to blink away the nausea from teleporting. George fared slightly better than him, able to walk after closing his eyes for a few seconds. The Admin allowed Sapnap to keep a hand on his arm, able to work on the code even with only one hand. The server seemed to be moving slower, the code not reaching out as quickly as it had been. George could see lines of corrupted code that would need to be fixed soon, but he focused on guiding Dream to the backdoor he had found. Dream pushed his mask aside, eyes bright with excitement as he pulled his arm away from Sapnap. Both hands flew as he threw everything he could against the virus. Sapnap and George backed up to let him work, sitting next to each other and keeping their eyes on Dream in case the virus were to fight back.

“Ha, gotcha,” Dream muttered, fingers stilling for a brief moment as the entire virus code was suddenly exposed to him. His eyes flew across the seemingly endless lines of code until they focused on a section with an almost unnoticeable flaw. “We got a logic error. Looks like it tried to change to target me, but it didn’t write it correctly so it lost any target on other Admins. Bad will be fine,  _ and  _ I might be able to use that error and extend it to make it unable to identify any target.”

Sapnap’s communicator lit up with a message from Skeppy, almost making him laugh at the coincidental timing. George glanced over, and Sapnap read the message out loud for Dream, “Hey, Dream. Skeppy just told me that Bad’s doing better and wants to see you. He’s been up and moving around all day without any pain. What should I tell them?”

“Um, let me see if I can push this error a bit, it shouldn’t take too long,” Dream replied, sounding distracted as his hands kept moving through the code. The server was still moving slowly, the virus had done quite the number on its code.

_ ‘That’s good to hear! Dream’s working on a possible fix, but we’ll head to your place soon.’ _

Skeppy’s reply was immediate, obviously waiting for Sapnap to message, ‘ _ No rush, Bad and I are just relaxing. See you then!’ _

Sapnap closed his communicator, rejoining George in watching Dream work. The Admin finally stepped back, waving the code away to see if his fix would work. The trio waited with baited breath, no one wanting to speak as the virus collapsed back into the server’s code. Dream’s legs gave out and a quiet gasp left his mouth as he hit the ground. The server’s code started moving much faster as Dream collapsed, the virus was completely indistinguishable in the rush of code. The Admin held up a hand to stop the two from moving closer, the hand shaking harshly as he squeezed his eyes shut. Sapnap and George waited, both frozen halfway up from their seated positions. Dream braced his hand on the ground, shoving himself up onto his feet. He stood still, hands slightly out from his torso to balance himself.

“Dream?” George eventually spoke up, standing fully from the crouch he had frozen in. “Does it feel any better or worse?”

“So much worse, but a different kind of bad,” Dream muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose as he swayed slightly. “Vertigo, definitely, but I’m not actually feeling much pain.”

“Is that good or bad?” Sapnap asked, offering his arm for Dream to balance on like he had been doing with Dream’s arm earlier. Dream rested his hand lightly, blinking like he was trying to stop the world from spinning.

“I can’t tell yet, I don’t know if pushing the error worked or if I just made the virus morph again,” Dream replied, focusing on the ground in front of him. He groaned quietly, shoving away from the other two before dropping to his knees and emptying the contents of his stomach. He gasped for air weakly, both Sapnap and George looked away as he heaved again. A few minutes passed before Dream was able to stand, coughing weakly and sucking in quick breaths. George handed him a water bottle and pulled out a healing potion. Dream gratefully took the water, rinsing his mouth out and spitting to the side. He chugged the entire bottle, and accepted the healing potion without complaint.

“I’m going to say that it’s worse,” George said after a moment of silence. 

Dream slowly raised his head and nodded weakly, “I can feel it. It’s my head, something went very wrong.”

“Are you still up to seeing Bad?”

“I. . .yeah, I’ll be fine, Sap. I want to check with him to see if I really messed up,” Dream said, slowly pulling up his admin screen. His hands were shaking as he typed the necessary things to teleport them as close to Bad and Skeppy’s house as possible. George and Sapnap each took an arm without prompting. Sapnap remembered to close his eyes when they teleported to avoid the nausea, which turned out to be wise as Dream fell to his knees with his hands pressed into his head after taking only a single step.

“Dream!” George managed to catch him as his eyes rolled backwards, slowly lowering himself to the ground so Dream’s head rested on his thigh. “Fuck, Sapnap go get Skeppy.”

Sapnap took off towards the archway they had appeared close to. George ran his hand through Dream’s hair, whispering quietly. He smoothed a hand across Dream’s forehead to check for a fever, realizing that the Admin had forgotten to put his mask back on and that the Admin’s temperature was way too high to be healthy. George yelped quietly when Dream’s limbs suddenly jerked. His arm narrowly missed punching George in the stomach.

“What’s happening?” Sapnap said, running up with Skeppy right on his tail.

“Seizure, just give him space. It should pass,” George replied, eyes focused on Dream. The moment his movements stilled, George rolled him onto his side and rubbed his back gently. “I actually think his fix worked, this seems like the virus is making a last ditch effort to hurt him as it dies.”

“Can we carry him to a bed?” Skeppy asked, glancing between George, Sapnap, and Dream. “Or would that be a bad idea?”

“It’s better to move him now instead of waiting and giving the virus a chance to trigger another seizure,” George said, his hands still smoothing through Dream’s hair gently. “Do you have a spare bed? I have a feeling this is going to get a lot worse before he gets any better.”

Skeppy helped lift Dream up so George could stand and get a better grip to help Sapnap carry him. Bad was waiting next to the door, throwing it open with a smile when he saw them. His smile faded quickly when he saw Dream, worry taking over his expression. Bad held the door open, stepping to the side so Skeppy could show them the spare bed.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” George muttered after they set Dream down and he sat on the bed next to him. He kept a hand on Dream’s shoulder to keep him resting on his side. Sapnap hummed his agreement, slouching down and staring at Dream blankly.

“Language,” Bad said softly, leaning his shoulder against the wall. “What happened to him? Skeppy said he was working on a fix, and I feel great. What went wrong?”

“I think everything went right, the virus is getting more aggressive because it knows something’s wrong,” George explained, running a hand through his hair and knocking his goggles askew. “It’s up to Dream now to pull through, we can’t do anything but give him health pots and keep him safe.”

The group sat and made quiet conversation, avoiding any talk about the virus. Skeppy pulled in two extra chairs so he and Bad could sit next to Sapnap. He took great pleasure in telling stories about Bad and how loopy he was when they were traveling. George found himself falling asleep, head falling against the wall as his eyes fluttered shut. Sapnap was the one to wake George up a few hours later, when the moon was high up in the sky, offering an apologetic smile. George sat up, having sunk further into the bed when he was asleep.

“Do you want the bed?” George mumbled, voice rough from sleep. He slipped out of the bed, Sapnap keeping his hand on Dream’s shoulder so George wouldn’t knock him over. George shivered when his feet hit the floor, the quartz of the house doing nothing to prevent the cold air of the night from getting in. 

“George!” Sapnap’s startled cry made George turn around faster than he thought possible. He quickly helped Sapnap lower Dream to his back and fit a pillow under the seizing man’s head to protect it. The seizure could only have lasted thirty to forty-five seconds, but to the duo watching it felt like an eternity past before Dream stopped moving. Sapnap leaned forward cautiously and lifted him onto his side. “Another seizure can’t be a good sign.”

George shook his head, “If they keep happening, we’re going to need to evacuate the server.”

“Don’t talk like that, George. Dream isn’t going to give up,” Sapnap said firmly, sitting on the bed next to their unconscious friend. “We don’t evacuate until we give up on him, and I don’t plan on giving up any time soon.”

George sat in the chair with a deep sigh, rubbing a hand over his eyes, “Sap, I don’t want to give up either.”

“Then don’t. We have access to enough health pots to heal everyone on this server twenty times over, it’ll be enough to keep Dream alive while he fights this damn thing,” Sapnap replied, gesturing to the chest that had been put next to the bed. George opened it to find almost 20 healing potions and 15 strength potions. He handed one of each to Sapnap silently, and the other gently helped Dream drink them. A faint amount of color returned to the unconscious man’s face.

“I’m not saying we evacuate today or tomorrow, but if the seizures keep happening, it might be better to, uhm,” George’s voice trailed off, but Sapnap was able to finish the sentence when he saw the pain in George’s eyes.

“I’m too tired to even think of that as a possibility,” Sapnap muttered, shifting so he was more comfortable in the bed. “Wake me up at sunrise.”

George nodded, curling his legs up in the chair and sitting on his feet. He zoned out as he watched the dim flickering of the lantern. Occasionally he could hear the rattling of a skeleton or the groan of a zombie, but he trusted Skeppy and Bad were good enough builders to make a mob-proof house. He flinched when he saw Dream move, but relaxed when he saw glazed over green eyes looking up at the ceiling.

“Dream?” He kept his voice quiet so he wouldn’t wake up Sapnap or startle Dream.

“Ge-” a coughing fit interrupted Dream. George was out of the chair and helping him sit up instantly, Sapnap somehow sleeping through the disturbance. “George?”

“Yeah, I’m right here, Dream,” George replied, stepping back when Dream was able to hold himself upright.

“George? I-where? I can’t. . .I can’t see anything,” Dream’s voice steadily grew more panicked as he kept talking. His hands reached out, trying to find George. He grabbed on and guided it to his shoulder so Dream could feel him. “What happened?”

“You had two seizures, Dream,” George said, keeping his voice calm. “I think it’s the virus. How do you feel?”

“My-” Dream coughed a few more times, each cough growing weaker. George went to move and grab a healing potion, but Dream made a panicked noise when his hand left George’s shoulder. “Where are you going?”

“Sorry! Sorry, Dream, I’m just grabbing a few potions,” George reassured him, lacing his hand with Dream’s and stretching to reach the chest without severing the point of contact. Dream’s hand squeezed his tightly, letting George know the other was in more pain and panicking more than he was letting on. “Do you think you could drink them by yourself?”

Dream turned his head slightly, trying to focus on the direction George’s voice came from. He shook his head slowly, “I. . .no, I’ll drop them.”

George hummed quietly. He put Dream’s hand back on his shoulder so he could use both hands to uncork the potion and guide it to Dream’s lips. The other flinched slightly at the cold glass, making George wince, “Sorry, I forgot you couldn’t see what I was doing. This is a healing potion, then I have a strength potion if you think you can drink two.”

This time when the glass touched his lips, Dream didn’t flinch away. He was able to drink the two potions with George’s help and minimal struggle. His hand never left George’s shoulder, but the grip he had loosened slightly as the healing potion kicked in. Dream held his other arm out, judging where George was before he leaned forward and dropped his head against the elder’s chest. George almost jumped away, startled by the sudden movement, but was able to control his reaction. He wrapped his arms around Dream, one hand rubbing his back and the other cupping the back of Dream’s neck. Dream leaned heavily on George, hands tight where he held the other’s shirt.

“I hate being so fucking weak,” Dream muttered, almost too quiet for George to hear. “I don’t want to die.”

George saw Sapnap slowly sit up. His eyes were bleary from sleep, but still filled with concern when he saw the way Dream was clinging to George. Sapnap made eye contact with George and mouthed, “What happened?”

George leaned back, but stopped moving when Dream let out a quiet noise. Sapnap scooted over, but George shook his head at him which made him stop before he touched Dream. The brit tapped out a steady pattern on Dream’s back when he noticed the blond’s breathing speeding up, “Is it okay for Sapnap to touch you?”

Dream pulled away from George, one hand releasing his shirt and reaching sideways. Sapnap caught it and Dream immediately gripped his hand tightly, “Sap?”

“Hey Dream,” Sapnap said with a smile, throwing his legs off the side of the bed so he could sit comfortably, “how are you feeling?”

“Mm, my head hurts and I’m still dizzy,” Dream replied, thumb brushing circles across the back of Sapnap’s hand. “I’m guessing that’s normal for a seizure.”

“Two, actually,” George said quietly, Dream’s eyes widened. 

Sapnap winced at the panic that was building on Dream’s face, “You scared the shit out of us, man. But do you think the fix worked?”

Dream tilted his head, his glazed over eyes angled slightly over Sapnap’s shoulder. He shrugged helplessly, his voice filled with pained sarcasm, “If you think blinding myself and giving myself seizures means it worked, then I guess it was perfect.”

“Dream-”

“No, I’m sorry, it’s not your fault, I shouldn’t have snapped at you,” Dream interrupted Sapnap. He tried to look back to where George was, but ended up just closing his eyes with a defeated sigh. “How’s Bad?”

“He’s completely recovered,” George said, still tapping an even pattern on Dream’s back. “Right now, we’re focused on you. Do you think you could take another healing pot?”

“I, uhm, yes, probably,” Dream murmured, opening his eyes and managing to focus his sightless gaze on George’s chest. “My eyes might get better with a potion, I think, maybe.”

Sapnap pulled his hand out of Dream’s, moving quickly to grab a health potion from the chest. He flung his hand up with a quiet laugh when he almost tripped because of the sun starting to come through the window. Dream took the bottle from him once it was uncorked, hand white knuckled with the tight grip he held the potion with. He managed to drink it by himself, despite his shakiness. George smiled brightly before he realized that Dream couldn’t see it. Sapnap also had a small smile on his face, the two making relieved eye contact at the improvement. Dream set the bottle down and reached out for Sapnap’s hand. He found it easier than before, and he was able to focus his eyes closer to Sapnap’s head. The blond’s eyes seemed less glassy, the healing potion kicking in to heal his eyes.

“Good morning! I made chocolate chip and blueberry muffins!” Bad’s voice drifted into the room along with the tantalizing smell of the fresh baked treats. “Skeppy added too many chocolate chips, but they should still be fine.”

“There is no such thing as too many chocolate chips,” Skeppy scoffed, also carrying a plate with chocolatey messes of muffins on it. “Measurements in baking are just recommendations, not rules.”

Dream had flinched harshly at the new voices, head snapping around and trying to focus on where they were. George resumed his tapping pattern on Dream’s back, breathing deeply in time with the taps to help Dream calm down. Sapnap took the plate from Bad so he could grab a foldable table to set the muffins on. Dream’s hands both moved to George’s shoulders, shaking less than before as he calmed down.

“Good morning Dream, glad to see you sitting up!” Bad said, voice still cheerful. Skeppy grabbed a chocolate chip muffin from the plate and took the wrapper off in one movement. Bad spared him a brief glance to roll his eyes, but quickly turned his attention back to Dream. “Do you want a muffin? I could make orange muffins, I know you like those.”

“N-no. Thanks for the offer Bad, but I’m not, uhm, not hungry,” Dream replied quietly, not moving from where he was focused on George, trying to match his breathing to the steady tapping pattern. Skeppy seemed to notice how close the blond had gotten to a panic attack because he quickly took over the conversation with a quieter voice to talk about his plans once he reopens InvadedLands.

“I think I could figure out a way to add a manhunt mini game, would you guys like to run it? It would get a ton of people to the server, and you could use it to advertise the SMP series,” Skeppy grinned brightly as he used a finger to ‘draw’ a map of InvadedLands and where the minigame would be on the table. 

Sapnap finished chewing his muffin quickly and nodded enthusiastically, “I don’t think we should do a full manhunt, that would spoil the map we use for people. But I think the people would love a Techno versus Dream manhunt-style duel.”

George nodded his agreement, eating his muffin slower than Sapnap since one hand was still resting on Dream’s back to help ground him. He shifted his weight, pulling his legs up onto the bed with him and sitting on his feet again. Dream was leaning against him, seemingly not realizing or not caring that he was resting all of his weight on George’s side. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it was comforting to both of them to feel each other’s breathing. 

Dream shrugged at the idea, “Give me a few weeks to recover, otherwise it would be too easy of a win for Techno.”

“Fair enough, but I think you’d still be able to win a normal manhunt right now,” Bad said with a reassuring grin. Dream shrugged again, curling closer to George and keeping his eyes lowered to the ground so Bad and Skeppy couldn’t see his blindness. 

Logically, he knew that he could trust them, but instinct pushed him to hide. His headache growing in intensity also pushed him to hide from the faint amount of light and shadows he could see as they were making him more nauseous as they shifted around. Dream turned his head towards the shadow that he knew was George, closing his eyes as he rested his forehead on what he guessed was George’s shoulder. He felt George’s hand come up to rest on his head and card through his hair gently. The brit pressed a soft kiss to Dream’s temple, Sapnap quickly jumping on it to tease him quietly. Bad tried to stop him while Skeppy joined in. Dream reached out without moving his head, finding Sapnap’s arm and smacking him as hard as he could at the angle he was at. Sapnap laughed, shoving Dream’s arm away from him gently.

“Shut up, loud ass,” Dream muttered. Silence in the room had Skeppy and Sapnap changing the target of their teasing to Bad for not calling out Dream’s curse. Dream groaned quietly, feeling himself start to fall asleep against George. The care that the brit was using to card through his hair pushing him into a tranquil state. 

George noticed Dream’s weight against him grow, looking down to see the green eyes slipping shut as the younger fell asleep. He moved so Dream would be lying in a more comfortable position for his neck, leaning against the headboard and pulling Dream to rest against his chest. Sapnap gave him a knowing look, which George pointedly ignored. The brit kept running his hands gently through the blond hair, half listening to the conversation as he thought over the code that he saw and tried to think of fixes.

“George, stop thinking. We need to wait for Dream to recover before we try anything. For all we know, his fix worked and the virus is dying. So stop thinking and just talk with us about Bad’s idea for the Badlands and the blood vines,” Sapnap said eventually, yanking George out of the endless thoughts about codes. 

George flushed, “I wasn’t-”

“Yes, you were. You were so lost in thought you didn’t even hear my amazing DNF joke,” Skeppy snorted with a playful grin. George felt his face get even redder as Sapnap and Skeppy laughed, Bad rolling his eyes and giving George a sympathetic look.

“I told them to stop, but they thought it was hilarious.”

“It’s okay, Bad, I’m sure it was nothing I haven’t heard before,” George gave the admin a kind smile. “Besides, I can just get back at Sapnap by talking about Karl and Quackity”

“You wouldn’t dare, Gogy,” Sapnap clasped a hand over his chest in an exaggerated motion.

“Try me, Snapmap,” George shot back, grinning widely. A friendly argument broke out between the two, teasing back and forth but making sure to keep their voices down so they wouldn’t disturb Dream.

Bad cleared his throat and interrupted after a few minutes, “Listen, I. . .I don’t want to make any assumptions, but did the virus affect Dream beyond the seizures? When it hit me the strongest, I lost all vision in my right eye and it took a few hours and a lot of health pots to recover it.”

“Uhm-”

“Well-”

Sapnap and George glanced at each other, and Sapnap gestured for George to speak. He cleared his throat and started again, “Well, he said he didn’t want people to know, but you two know more about the virus than anyone else on the server combined. When he woke up this morning, he couldn’t see anything. I think it was getting better though, he should get his vision back soon.”

“God, he can’t see  _ anything _ ? That would suck,” Skeppy muttered, running a hand on the back of his neck as he studied Dream. Bad nodded his agreement, rubbing his arms like he was trying to warm himself up. “How long will it take for him to recover?”

“Hopefully not too much longer, I got him to take a few healing and strength pots before you two came in. He was more aware than I expected, so I think the fix did work,” George answered, eyes soft as he studied Dream where he was leaning against his chest. “He should be good the next time he wakes up, but we might want to wake him up in thirty minutes to check on him.”

“Mm, good idea,” Bad replied. “I should go clean up the kitchen, Skeppy made a bit of a mess.”

“I did  _ not _ ! It was all your fault,” Skeppy argued, following Bad out of the room as he kept arguing. As soon as the door closed behind them, Sapnap turned to face George with a deep frown.

“Do you really think he’s going to get better? Just a few hours ago you were talking about evacuating the server.”

George sunk further into the bed, burying his face into Dream’s shoulder, “Sap, I don’t know. I’m trying, but this is totally new. He could die or he could recover like nothing ever happened. I’m trying to stay positive because he wanted us to, but. . . _ fuck _ .”

“George. . .”

The two shared a few moments of silence, the faint rasps of Dream’s breath the only noise. The green clad man shifted, hand clenching tightly in George’s shirt. A quiet noise of discomfort left him as he tried to sit up. Sapnap laughed quietly and held out an arm to help lift him into a sitting position, “You think you can stay awake a bit longer this time, dude?”

“Ugh,” was the only response, his hand leaving George’s shirt to run through his hair. Dream blinked a few times, eyes focusing on the other two and going wide. “It’s- it’s blurry, but I can see. I can  _ see _ !”

George’s face split into a huge grin, relief filling his eyes as he let out a surprised laugh. Sapnap smiled at Dream’s enthusiasm, squeezing Dream’s arm that his hand rested on gently. Dream seemed to realize he was still leaning on George and went to stand up and put space between them. He brushed Sapnap’s arm aside, and, although he was shaky, he did manage to stand on his own. A bright grin covered his face as he spread his hands out a bit to keep his balance.

“I take it you feel better?” George asked with another laugh. “You were really out of it earlier.”

“I. . .yeah, I think it’s gone, but I’d need to check the code to be sure,” Dream replied while studying the room, blinking more than normal.

Sapnap practically tackled him in a hug, George standing and joining in after a moment. Dream stumbled back, almost falling, but caught himself and hugged them back. The silent message the other two were giving coming in loud and clear, the code could wait. Right now, Dream wasn’t going anywhere.

**Author's Note:**

> 13,836 words. . .can you believe this was supposed to be a short one shot? It got a bit longer than I expected.  
> Thank you so much for reading,, please leave a comment if you made it this far and kudos are highly appreciated  
> Love you all!!  
> <3 MF


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